As the Working Families Party (WFP) gathered for its state convention on May 31, it appeared the small but influential third party was set to turn New York politics on its head and challenge incumbent Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo.

Progressives’ frustration with “Governor 1%” has been building for years, to the point where statewide polls this spring showed a hypothetical WFP candidate getting more than 20 percent of the vote in a three-way race with Cuomo and Republican nominee Rob Astorino. And the party had a candidate waiting in the wings: Zephyr Teachout, a Fordham Law School professor and former Howard Dean campaign aide who was the favorite of many of the state committee’s 200 members. Yet by the end of a raucous convention, the WFP endorsed Cuomo, just as it had in 2010. In return, the party received a string of promises that no one believes the governor intends to keep — including WFP insiders.

The endorsement deal dismayed many WFP supporters who ask how a left-leaning party with strong ties to labor unions could back a right-wing governor who has cut the pensions of state workers, lavished support on charter schools and handed out tax breaks to millionaires while putting much of the state government on an austerity budget.

Eye On the State Senate

What critics of the WFP’s endorsement are missing is that the strategy isn’t about trusting Cuomo, but boxing him in so he won’t interfere with the real goal: restoring control of the State Senate to the Democrats. Large unions are promising to help bankroll this effort, which will almost certainly include deployment of the WFP field staff. And some of this has already happened; SEIU 1199 has committed to only supporting Democrats this year, while the UFT has told Independent Democratic Caucus (IDC) members they need to rejoin the Democrats ‘or else.’

Republicans have controlled the State Senate almost continuously for the past 50 years. The Democrats won a majority in the 2012 election, but soon afterwards, five Democratic state senators announced they would caucus with the Republicans. It’s widely believed that Cuomo encouraged this accord because it takes the pressure off of him to act on progressive legislation that regularly passes the Democratic-held State Assembly but dies in the Senate.

Senate Democrats have almost no money in their coffers. However, the millions that will now flow to contested races will enable the WFP to put boots on the ground in key districts and organize the kind of get-out-the-vote efforts that swing elections. They will target the five renegade members of the IDC plus a couple of vulnerable Long Island Republicans.

If the WFP can bring the Democrats to power in the Senate, a raft of progressive legislation becomes more likely, including a minimum wage increase, campaign finance reform, more funding for public schools and decriminalization of marijuana. These are all issues that Cuomo was forced to endorse publicly during the WFP convention. The WFP’s strategy is a gamble. The union leaders who cut a deal with Cuomo will feel like it was worth it if they can win a substantial boost to the minimum wage. However, if the Senate doesn’t change hands, don’t expect Cuomo to go out of his way to help the WFP.

Teachout’s Next Move

Meanwhile, Teachout and her supporters are now looking to run against Cuomo in the September 9 Democratic primary. As The Indypendent went to press, Teachout had not made a final decision to run but was moving quickly to raise the money to mount a credible campaign against Cuomo in the primary.

Should Teachout run, she will pressure Cuomo from the left. She could also help drive the turnout of progressive voters in districts where the WFP is trying to win primary races against the five renegade Democratic state senators. In the process of building a campaign and mobilizing supporters, Teachout may give birth to something akin to the WFP, but without the dominance of organizations that prioritize transactional politics.

Charles Lenchner is executive director of Organizing 2.0 and former director of online organizing for the Working Families Party.

RELATED CONTENT: Greens Take Aim at Cuomo, WFP

Gov. Andrew Cuomo will also be challenged again this year by the Greens, who argue that they, not the WFP, are New York’s genuine left third party. For The Indypendent’s interview with New York City educator and Green Party lieutenant governor candidate Brian Jones, see NYC Educator Runs for Lt. Gov: An Interview with Brian Jones.

Comments

While the Tea Party defeats conservative House Majority Leader in Virginia, Dan Cantor — the apparent czar for life of the WFP — endorses Cuomo again and gets a big pile of nothing in return.

WFP doesn't hold Democrats accountable — it holds working families in check, no matter what the Dems do.

Everybody knows it. It's straight up corruption. Just like when SEIU supported the NAFTA candidacies of Clinton/Gore. Just like when Clinton doubled the national prison population. Just like when WFP endorsed right-wing Dem Hillary Clinton.

In fact, not one single time has WFP done ANYTHING but tell workers and the left to sign on to another round of shit-eating from the Democratic Party table.

If they will endorse and campaign for a man who promised "war on the unions" - all this shim-sham talk is a joke. WFP expects nothing in return. Their rhetoric is for OUR consumption, to tell us what we will take. It's ideological enforcement and permanent subordination of us to them.

These suckers still think WFP gives a hoot about them. It's a corrupt enterprise where the boss class of a handful of unions (and brokerage schemes like ACORN) stand in for the politics we need.

Democratic Party corruption is nothing new. When a non-corrupt governor was elected, Eliot Spitzer — they made sure to get him right quick. He would have prosecuted Wall Street, so he had to go.

Now their errand boy Andy Jr. comes in, promises to destroy our pensions and the WFP "plays ball" and strikes out yet again.

If it's not clear by now: voting has nothing to do with politics. Certainly not in this city, where much of the working class isn't allowed to vote — but is allowed to serve the rich. Where every major paper endorses Bloomberg and Giuliani, where the TV stations and broadcast outlets are owned by a handful of oligarchs...

Can we just stop pretending that WFP has anything to do with "progressivism" — whatever that word is supposed to mean in any case?

Marijuana has been decriminalized in New York State since 1977. Everyone covering this deal in the media--left, right, or corporate--seems to be ignorant about this.

The "decriminalization" mentioned here is closing the loophole that makes possession "in public view" a misdemeanor instead of a $100 fine--a loophole police exploit to make arrests when they find pot during stops-and-frisks.

Cuomo has already endorsed this--and so did Michael Bloomberg and Ray Kelly, They apparently saw it as something that would never pass but would take the political heat off them for stop-and-frisk.

If Cuomo supports the IDC working with the Republicans then he certainly has no serious motive to support WFP unless Cuomo were providing the financial support for WFP to defeat the 5 members of the IDC in the primaries. WFP gains nothing from endorsing Cuomo. In fact if WFP has the resources they could support primary opponents and, with their own candidate for Gov., could apply additional leverage.

Perhaps the author assumes there are already viable primary opponents to the IDC, that WFP would already be supporting because it's not likely to happen this late in the petition political calendar. The author offers no evidence though.

Had Teachout been given the "Wilson Pakula" (legally possible because she received more than 25% of WFP State Committee vote), she could challenge Cuomo in the WFP primary (and the Democratic Party primary if she were to chose and had the resources).

WFP party rules are designed to prevent such primaries from occurring. WFP doesn't seem to have "earned" any additional resources to assist in gaining Democratic control of the Senate (especially since the author states Cuomo has no interest in doing so).

The articles seems more wishful thinking than any tactical implementation.

I'll be working on the Green Party's Hawkins/Jones campaign so a party with integrity can maintain a ballot line to run viable challenges locally.